Maedaya Sake and Grill

Sake and Grill-Maedaya

Maedaya Sake and Grill is an Izakaya style restaurant along Bridge Road, Richmond. This one year old establishment, offers 65 different types Japanese sakes, choyas, spirits, beers. But do not let this fool you into thinking that this is just a waterhole. The food here is pretty damn good.

Bar and Downstairs Dining Area

Complimentary "pita bread" with Housemade Dips

The friendly and bubbly staff first offered served us this complementary "pita bread" with housemade dips. I belive that the housemade dips change everynight. On that night we had : balsamic vinegar, spicy mayo, sweet miso and curry mayo/miso. The dips were all very nice, we especially liked the curry miso/mayo.

Yakitori Set ($14.50)

This set was value very good value for money, you get 5 sticks of delicious yakitori.

From top to botom:

Tsukune- a classic yakitori, marinated chicken balls. It was very good.

Pork Belly- smoky, juicy and flavourful. Yummy.

Tasty Cheese wrapped with bacon and Japanese Basil- very salty, not my favourite yakitori that night.

Chicken thigh yakitori- the classic, tender and flavoursome, one the best of the night.

Chicken breast yakitori- the "healthier" version, it was OK, it was abit on the dry side.

Other Yakitori that were not pictured:

Quail egg wrapped with bacon- an ingenious creation, the marrying of Japanese and Australian ingredient. This is so so good, the fatty and salty bacon goes really well with the quail egg.

Asparagus wrapped with pork belly- a smart dish. It was delicious, but a shame that the asparagus I got that night was stick thin.

Okonomiyaki ($10)

I think, its fair to say all four of us enjoyed this very much. This simple Japanese style pancake, has the usual fillings of cabbage and meat. The generous topping of J-mayo and J- BBQ sauce was a big plus.

Other dishes that were not pictured:

Cheese Gyoza- a weird concoction. A regular pork Gyoza with cheese fillings and deep fried. I am not sure if I will order that again.

Yam Noodle Salad- Potato noodle with rocket, baby spinach, tomato, pine nuts and I believe honey soy dressing. The It was another highlight of the night. I thought the flavours matched perfectly.

Chicken Kara Age- deep fried chicken, classic pub food. It was fried to crisp perfection. even though it was a tad to salty.

Cream Croquette- deep fried Japanese- style potato croquette. Another tasty dish from this Izakaya.

Edamame- baby soybeans. It was atrocious, it was freezing cold, bland and yellow in colour. Should have followed my instinct when I spotted, a mountain full of edamame in the bar fridge.

Zenzai (I think it was $5)

The desserts were presented in a separate menu. From the short but appetizing list of six choices, we chose Zenzai and the mouthful Green Tea Soy Latte Pannacotta, topped with Vanilla Ice Cream and Matcha powder.

The zenzai (pictured above) was terrific, the glutinous rice ball had a great soft and "bouncy" texture, azuki beans were cooked nicely as well.

Green Tea Soy Latte Pannacotta, topped with Vanilla Ice Cream and Matcha powder ($6)

This is another ingenious creation, it was topped with creamy vanilla ice cream and robust matcha powder. Every bite of the pannacota was packed with the green tea and soy latte flavour. A really simple, yet tasty dessert.

To top it all off, the owner of Maedaya offered each of us a glass of complementary sake aptly named, "heaven's water". It was the perfect ending for a memorable night.

Food for thought: Maedaya has an upstairs area that caters for DIY Japanese BBQ area.

Among the four of us the bill came up to be around $200. To break it down- it came up to be $50 p.p for food plus a seriously of a big bottle of Sake OR $35 for food with no drinks.

Maedaya
400 Bridge Road
Richmond VIC 3121
Ph: (03) 9428 3918

$35 (exclude alcohol)
$50 (alcohol)

Mon-Sat
Noon-2.30pm, 6pm-11pm

Score: 4/5